Management

Our team includes World leaders in the gene therapy field with strong commercial, clinical and technical expertise.

Dr Anne Prener - Chief Executive Officer

Anne brings to Freeline over 25 years of experience in drug development and executive leadership across several therapeutic areas, with special focus on rare diseases and gene therapy. Anne most recently served as the CEO of Gyroscope Therapeutics, a preclinical gene therapy company focusing on ophthalmology, where she continues to serve as a non-executive Member of the Board. From 2014-2016 Anne was VP of Clinical Research Haematology and Global Therapeutic Area Head of Haematology in Baxalta, Boston, USA and in this role secured several new product approvals (US and EU). Prior to this Anne held a number of senior leadership positions across a broad range of functional areas at Novo Nordisk, Denmark, leading global drug development programs from research to commercialisation and bringing several products to market globally.
Anne is an MD from Copenhagen University and holds a PhD in Epidemiology.

Dr Jan Thirkettle - Chief Development Officer

Jan Thirkettle is Chief Development Officer of Freeline. Previously he was VP, Cell & Gene Therapy Platform at GSK where he built GSK’s Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC)/supply capabilities in the cell & gene therapy field, enabling the submission of a Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) for an ex vivo gene therapy for ADA-SCID in 2015 and establishment of a portfolio of technologies and programmes. Prior to this, Jan was responsible for CMC and supply of a number of late/launch stage biopharmaceuticals. He holds an MA in Chemistry and a PhD in Biological Chemistry from Oxford University.

Professor Amit Nathwani - Chief Scientific Officer

Amit is the CSO of Freeline and also the Director of the Katharine Dormandy Haemophilia Centre at the Royal Free Hospital and a Senior NIHR Investigator. He is also Professor of Haematology at UCL. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Aberdeen in 1984.In 1997 he moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA to work with Dr Arthur Nienhuis on adeno-associated virus mediated gene transfer, which is where he started his pioneering work on gene therapy for haemophilia B. In 2001 he returned to University College London as a Senior Lecturer in Haematology and a Consultant to the National Blood Services in the UK. He was the first to show successful correction of bleeding diathesis in patients with severe haemophilia B using a distinct gene transfer approach developed in collaboration with Drs Davidoff and Nienhuis at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Dr Gerard Short - SVP, Head of Clinical and Regulatory

Ged Short is SVP, Head of Clinical and Regulatory at Freeline. He is a pharmaceutical physician with close to 18 years’ experience of pharma and biotech and was previously Senior Medical Director at Genzyme Corporation where he led the global clinical development for the Company’s Pompe’s Disease programme, including Myozyme/ Lumizyme and the second generation enzyme replacement therapy, NeoGAA. Prior to that he was the global clinical development lead for clofarabine, a treatment for relapsed refractory Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in children. Ged qualified in Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School at the University of London; is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and has an MBA from London Business School.

Dr Markus Hörer - Chief Technology Officer

Markus is the Chief Technology Officer of Freeline and Managing Director of Freeline Therapeutics GmbH.

Markus has over 25 years of experience working in the AAV field as well as over 18 years’ experience in vaccine and biologics development in research, process and analytical development, quality control, preclinical and business development. He joined Freeline from Rentschler GmbH where he was responsible for setting up the new Virus-based Biologics business unit focussed on AAV vector development. Prior to that he held various positions at MediGene AG where he was responsible for the development of rAAV vector technology, its successful transfer into a GMP environment and its use for development of autologous Melanoma cell vaccines. After transferring the oncolytic HSV technology from San Diego to Munich, he was in charge of setting up a quality control and assay development division. He was also head of the AAVLP vaccine platform technology, process and preclinical project development.

Markus holds a PhD in Biology from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and has filed nine patents and claims 11 further inventions in the AAV field.

Dr Susan Hill - Chief Business Officer

Susan Hill is Chief Business Officer of Freeline. Prior to joining Freeline, Susan founded a rare disease business development consultancy, where she served as interim VP Business Development for Lysogene (Paris, France), a CNS gene therapy company. Prior to that, Susan served as Senior Director, Corporate and Business Development for Alexion Pharma, Inc., focusing on transactional execution in the field of rare and ultra-rare diseases. She has also served in a number of Business Development, Strategy and Portfolio Management roles for Serono / Merck KGaA in Geneva, Switzerland, including Global Head of Neurodegenerative Disease Business Development and Global Head of Portfolio Management for Endocrinology, Fertility & General Medicine. In her early career, she was Investment Manager for a seedcorn equity fund managed by Aberdeen Asset Managers, starting her career in Corporate Finance and Consultancy with KMPG in London, UK. She holds an MA in Natural Sciences and a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University.

Dr Jane Whitrow - VP, Finance

Jane Whitrow FCA is VP, Finance and Company Secretary of Freeline. Jane is a Chartered Accountant and joined Freeline after 7 years at IXICO where she was responsible for fundraising, forecasting, financial reporting, investor relations, HR, IT, legal, facilities, Quality and Company Secretarial and was part of the core management team involved in the acquisition of Phytopharm Limited and the subsequent listing on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. Prior to that she worked for a variety of high tech/start-up companies including Cambridge Biostability, Novacta Biosystems and BioSyntha. Jane also spent 5 years at the biotech venture capitalist Merlin Ventures (latterly Merlin BioSciences) which she joined as Financial Controller, with a wide-reaching role across both the corporate group and the investment portfolio, and was subsequently promoted to the Board as Finance Director. Jane has a BSc from the University of Manchester and a PhD in Plant Genetics from the University of Birmingham. She completed post-doctoral research in the same field before joining KPMG where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

Dr Duncan Whitaker - Director, Intellectual Property

Duncan Whitaker is Director, Intellectual Property at Freeline. Duncan is a Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney and joined Freeline after more than 6 years at GSK, as Senior Counsel, Global Patents. Duncan was part of the team supporting GSK's world-leading Vaccines business centred in Belgium, with particular responsibility for GSK Vaccines' 'DTP' portfolio (e.g. Infanrix and Boostrix product families) and projects, the core paediatric franchise encompassing products generating c.£1B annual turnover. Prior to that, Duncan served for over five years in the Biotech team at private practice firm Dehns in London, working on behalf of universities, start-ups and SMEs, as well as large multinationals. Duncan has a BSc from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in molecular genetics undertaken at the MRC Human Genetics Unit (Edinburgh).

Dr. Romuald Corbau - VP Research

Romu obtained his PhD in the Department of Tumor Virology at the German Centre for Cancer Research (Heidelberg, Germany), where he studied the regulation of parvoviruses life cycle. He started his pharmaceutical career at Pfizer Global Research & Development where he occupied positions of increasing responsibilities in several therapeutic areas. Then he joined the Center for Innovation and Stimulation of Drug Discovery (CISTIM, Leuven, Belgium) as Director of Biology, a company that transforms specialised research into innovative small molecule drug discovery. Before joining Freeline, Romu served as the Translational Lead at Spark Therapeutics (Philadelphia, USA), a company dedicated to the discovery and development of AAV-based gene therapies. Overall, Romu brings over 19 years of pharmaceutical industry experience to Freeline, having worked in various companies ranging from start up level to global multinational pharma both in Europe and the US.